Written by: Dan Gregor & Doug Mand & Akiva Schaffer, Jim Abrahams & David Zucker & Jerry Zucker (television series "Police Squad")
Directed by: Akiva Schaffer
Starring: Liam Neeson, Pamela Anderson, Paul Walter Hauser, Kevin Durand, Danny Huston
Rated: PG-13
Plot
Only one man has the particular set of skills to lead Police Squad and save the world.
Verdict
The theater helps with this type of comedy especially, and Liam Neeson is a great choice for the role. He's credible as an action star in a movie that has him play against type. The first scene sets the expectation for this world. What follows are scenes full of comedy; wordplay, physical, puns, gags, and more. The story is thin, existing just to create a platform for jokes. It's better than I expected but it's not a movie I'll revisit.
It depends.
Review
The first scenes show you what to expect in this world if you don't know the premise. Frank Drebin Jr.(Liam Neeson) thwarts a bank robbery by stretching the bounds of the physical world, eating guns, Matrix style fighting, and literally bowling over his enemies.
The theater helps with this type of comedy especially, and Liam Neeson is a great choice for the role. He's credible as an action star in a movie that has him play against type. The first scene sets the expectation for this world. What follows are scenes full of comedy; wordplay, physical, puns, gags, and more. The story is thin, existing just to create a platform for jokes. It's better than I expected but it's not a movie I'll revisit.
It depends.
Review
The first scenes show you what to expect in this world if you don't know the premise. Frank Drebin Jr.(Liam Neeson) thwarts a bank robbery by stretching the bounds of the physical world, eating guns, Matrix style fighting, and literally bowling over his enemies.
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| Liam Neeson plays Frank Drebin Jr. |
This skewers the police, pop culture, and common movie tropes. Characters often take statements literally. Neeson is perfect for the role as an action hero that takes his job seriously. The humor happens around him with a lot of the comedy being Drebin taking ridiculous situations quite seriously, that and his disregard for common police procedure. This humor relies on dead pan misdirection and silliness. It knows what we expect to happen next and often thwarts it.
A P.L.O.T. device was stolen from a safe deposit box which Drebin links to a car crash he had comically and incorrectly determined was suicide. That brings the victim's sister Beth (Pamela Anderson) to Frank which in turn leads Drebin to tech mogul Cane (Danny Huston). This features all of the common movie tropes, but that's also part of the joke.
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| Paul Walter Hauser, Liam Neeson play Ed Hocken Jr., Frank Drebin Jr. |
Two of the funniest sequences are when Cane's henchman spies on Drebin. Though it's a PG-13 depiction the implication is quite raunchy. The henchman sees an interaction between Drebin, Beth, and later Drebin's dog. It's absurd and hilarious. There's a later scene where Drebin and Beth go on a weekend getaway. The humor is in how long the sequence continues and keeps escalating, leading to a snowman encounter.
Drebin gets another lead when he kidnaps a Cane henchman. Drebin must stop the P.L.O.T. device, defeat Cane, and save the city. You can imagine how ridiculous the finale is, but Drebin manages to subdue citizens without killing them, and then face off against Cane. As mentioned, this always subverts expectations.
This is a movie best experienced with a crowd. It's packed with jokes and needs to be. The few lulls without jokes are noticeable. What it lacks in story it makes up for in what is basically a series of comedy sketches.
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